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I knew a homeless man named Addie in the Day Center of Waltham. I have made contact with him again for the video project. He is willing to let me interview him and record a day of his life. He told me his “home” is in Waltham and invited me to visit, and he also was happy to introduce his friends to me, but I am not sure if the other homeless people would agree to be on camera. He has written some pages of his life in Spanish and his is willing to translate it into English for the interview. He will be in hospital for the next two weeks but he will leave more his contact information in the Day Center if I want to interview him at anytime.

The impact of the immigration ban to the Muslim community in Waltham

I have made contact with the chairman of Waltham Islamic Society and visited the Society on Sunday when the Muslim from Boston were all here to prey and Muslim children were here to take religious classes. There were hundreds of people there and they allow me to do interview and take photos inside of the Center. I am free to record inside of the Center, including the prey room, classroom and bathroom to clean bodies before praying. People are nice there and they are willing to share their experience with me. I used my phone to record two brief interviews with the chairman and a Muslim mom in the Center and took lots of photos and videos with my phone.

Bristol Lodge

The Bristol Lodge Shelter currently offer a total of 57 beds to homeless individuals from Waltham and surrounding communities. I went to the shelter during the daytime and took some photos inside of the shelter. The director told me the shelter open from 4pm to 8pm and I have to contact the head of the shelter to ask for permission if I want to use video recorder inside the building and putting their clients is totally unacceptable. I have e-mailed the manager of the shelter about if I can video record the shelter during daytime to see how it works and only interview homeless people with their permission, but I get no response yet.

Without the company of families, international Chinese students have their own ways to celebrate the Chinese New Year of Rooster. Friends normally gather together to spend time together. I will interview two students. Here are some potential questions
-what did you do on New Year’s Eve?
-what’s the feeling of not staying with your family on this important festival?
-Comparing to past year’s Spring Festival, what’s the biggest difference?

Besides students themselves, Chinese students associations also prepared well-planned shows to celebrate the Festival. For examples, Berklee held the Chinese New Year Concert and Brandeis also prepares Spring Festival Gala to invite all students enjoying the show together.
I interviewed the producer of Berklee Chinese New Year Concert, and students who’ve been to the show.

There are lots of photoshop apps on phone in China. They have powerful function of making face look more beautiful. Among all the apps, MeiTu is the most popular one and it is now getting popular in America. Lots of Americans think MeiTu is so useful that they can look much nicer. However, some people think MeiTu conveys racism because it can only make your skin whiter, and thus some people think MeiTu regards white skin as the standard of beauty. I will interview students from different countries and racial, and here are some potential questions.

– How do you like you in the phone after MeiTu’s photoshop?

– Would you like to use it often in your daily life and post on social media?

– Do you think it actually set a standard of beauty and this standard should actually been different from people to people?

I have never experienced a subject like journalism, which can really open my eyes to the world, build new thinking ways and learn to tell story objectively. More important, I can learn multimedia skills like shooting and editing, which will be so useful for me even if I am not in the journalism field. I like to talk to people and I like to know the truth, but I don’t have specific interests as a journalist because for now I am finding my interests and I just eager to touch with all kinds of news.
For the on-campus news, I would like to comment on is the Chinese students are all busy preparing for the Spring Festival and both Sherman and Usdan will serve traditional Chinese food during dinner time. The Spring Festival, the biggest Festival in China, symbolizes for the family reunion. Chinese students may feel lonely and disappointed without the company of family. The decision of Brandeis offering Chinese students with traditional Chinese food conveys respectful to Chinese culture, and more importantly, shows the school’s care to the Chinese student.

The off-campus news I want to comment is the Women’s March. I only watch the March at Downtown Crossing, but most of the people there in pink hats smiling friendly, carrying banners and slogans quietly, and police officers look relaxed. The order of the March is much better than I thought and people acted so rationally.